Reassurance
by CUtopia
Summary: In the night before the Quidditch World Cup Final, Jillian Mullet needs some reassurance...


Entry for the Unusual Pairing Challenge – Mullet/Troy

My first try on this pairing... I am not sure about the end though, leave me your opinion :)

* * *

Jillian Mullet threw herself from one side to the other, pulled on her blanket and hit her pillow into a different form, but whatever she did was not enough to make her feel comfortable enough to fall asleep.

She had always had a big problem with nervousness and now, on the night prior to the most important game of her career, her nerves were going crazy. The World Cup Final – no one from the team had ever expected them to get so far in the Cup, but here they were, they would play against Bulgaria tomorrow and it was important to get some rest.

Unfortunately, Jillian's mind had other plans.

While her body was begging for sleep, her mind was fully awake, going through all the strategies they had planned for the game and tried to measure all possible scenarios.

With a loud sigh, Jillian gave up in trying to force herself to fall asleep and threw her blanket aside. She shuddered slightly as her bare feet met the cool floorboards and rubbed her hands over her upper arms while she glanced out of the window of her room, the sight of the huge shadow of the stadium towering in the darkness not being soothing at all.

It was clear to her that she was panicking as this important moment, without a doubt the most important one of her entire Quidditch career, was coming closer and closer and she knew that she had to do something about it. Skill, talent and athletisism were good and needed if you wanted to be a good player, but already during her first season in the Quidditch League, Jillian had had to learn the hard way that nobody should ever underestimate the power the own mind had over the bodys performance. Concentrating, keeping the nerves in check, to clear the head of all disturbing doubts, that was just as important

Jillian doubted that she was the right choice, that she was good enough... only a few people knew that she had been, in fact, not been the first choice of the officials who had hand-picked the members of the National Team... she had only been a reserve, they had not found her to be the best for the job, but then the athlete who had originally had her place on the team had had a nasty training accident. Suddenly, Jillian had been in to play for Ireland.

The bitter taste of being only second choice had stayed and was now getting back to her, gnawing on her confidence, something that was definitely not good when you were less than one day away from playing in a World Cup Final.

She had to do something about it, she needed reassurance from somebody, anybody who had known her for some time and whose opinion she valued.

oOo

Jillian did not know why her feet carried her to the room three doors down the small hallway of their big team tent, but she knew that it was better to risk and wake somebody up then to go back to bed, warm her cold feet and go on mulling in her own thoughts until dawn.

Softly, her knuckles hit the wood after she took a deep breath.

At first, there was no answer, but upon another knock, she heard a muffled groan which was possibly supposed to be a invite in.

Slipping quietly through the door, Jillian smiled to herself as she saw the moonlight falling onto the bed on which Matthew Troy, her fellow chaser, was lying, lazily sprawled across the whole width of the matress, legs and arms stretched away from his body.

"H-hi...", she waved, more than happy that she was standing in the darker part of the room so he could not see her blushing – thinking about it, it did seem a little odd to visit her male team mate in the middle of the night.

"Jill s'is two 'n night...", Matthew mumbled, his head only rising a few inches from the pillow before it fell back down.

"I... I know... it's just... I can't sleep...", Jillian admitted, her fingers nervously playing with the end of her long, dark-blonde braid.

"Nervous?"

"Yes."

Matthew raised on arm to lift his blanket and without thinking twice about what she was going to do, Jillian slipped under it, feeling surprisingly comfortable as he put his muscular arm around her shoulder and pulled her against his side, his body heat embracing her instantly.

"Don't take yourself too serious, mate... we already achieved more than people expected from us in first place", he said, slowly sounding a bit more awake, his deep, slightly hoarse voice vibrating through his chest.

"But what if I ruin our chances to win?", Jillian asked, placing her head on his shoulder. Matthew chuckled lightly. "We all worked so hard for this and I should not have been on the team at all... they wanted somebody else, there are better players than me..."

"You are our best chaser, Jillian. The only reason why you weren't the first choice of the officials was because they felt like you were too young. Idiots. Just play the way you did in the games before and everything will be great. Okay?"

"Crawler."

He gently cupped her face to make her look into his eyes, urgently whispering:"I mean every single word. We all believe in you, pretty. Stop worrying so much."

Jillian smiled, feeling like a positive feeling started to rush through her veins, warming her insides and she propped herself up on her elbows their chests touching as she placed a kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you, Matt."

Returning her smile warmly, he ran one hand up her back, neck and face until he reached her forehead and pushed a few loose strands of hair away, his green eyes studying her features in the pale moonlight.

"Everything to make you feel how special you are."

Jillian suddenly realised that something had changed between them – she had never had a problem with being so close to Matthew or one of the other men on the team, they had been sharing their living space for the last couple of months and had grown together a lot, but now... Right now he was not looking at her the way he used to, as if she was one of the boys... He looked at her, Jillian, the woman...

And somehow, this did not make her feel uncomfortable at all.

Instinctively, they both moved forward at the same time to close the small gap that had remained between their faces, their lips colliding in a heated, passionate kiss.

Their bodies pressed against each other, leaving no space for a piece of parchment, they got tangled in the blankets as Matthew wrapped his arms around her slim body and turned Jillian onto her back in one fast move, never breaking contact between their lips.

It was all happening faster than they registered, hands gliding under shirts, caressing the bare skin underneath, longing for more...

Being forced to break the kiss as Jillian pulled his shirt over his head, Matthew looked down at her, slightly puzzled, seemingly just as surprised about what they were doing and feeling as she was.

"What is this?", he asked breathlessly, covering her fingers that had been gliding over his chest muscles with his hand to stop them.

"I don't know...", Jillian answered, feeling dizzy in her head from the heat that was radiating between them and through her body, sending pleasant shivers into every single nerve-end.

"But... But we are friends, aren't we?"

"We are."

This situation was more than confusing, but she did not wanted to stop or leave, his touch felt way too good.

"So... we..."

"Continue... I need some more reassurance", Jillian whispered seductively, pulling him closer again. "You told me to worry less. Stick to your own words."


End file.
